“Science does not know its debt to imagination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
One of the scariest things facing seniors graduating high school is the thought of choosing a major in college. There is so much pressure facing students who are interested in pursuing a career in the sciences to make good grades that they often lose focus on why they want to work in their chosen fields in the first place.
Sitting in a physics or biology classroom and taking diligent notes can seem like a waste of time if you don’t know how you are going to apply the knowledge to real life. If you are focused in class, but clueless on career paths, it might seem like you are wasting your time in college. In order to make your education more useful, it is important to think of things in a much more human way than your professors.
Engineering
One of the easiest translations from hobbies to a potential major is finding out how mechanical and electrical things work. If you think about it, everything in our society is operated with electricity and mechanics. Most people cannot enter their homes without punching in a few numbers into their garage doors or swiping a key card to enter their buildings.
In South Korea, engineers are designing robots that patrol prisons in order to help guards monitor the inmates. According to The Week, these robots are not meant to intimidate the prisoners, but are instead equipped with smiling faces and can actually help if a fight breaks out.
Life Science
If you are not sure that a purely mechanical career path is right for you, the life sciences offer a more hands-on experience and a clear human benefit. Many people in biology classrooms think of dissecting animals on the same level as mechanics taking apart cars. While the same structures are important to learn, hiring companies like Huntingdon Life Sciences careers will want you to think of the end user of their products more than just getting the job done.
Computer Science
While it may not be too transparent at an 18-year-old fresh out of college, the Internet works in a strikingly similar way to large mechanical and biological structures. Instead of working with physical structures, you are taking your knowledge of science and math into the digital realm.
People need to use the Internet every day in order to work and communicate with each other, and gaining a computer science degree will allow you to work on the construction crew on the Information Superhighway. If you are interested in working your way into a job at Facebook or Google, the most important thing isn’t scoring good grades in school. A really impressive resume or CV will consist of open-sourced coding projects, unique smartphone apps, and websites built for projects or small businesses.
Science is not just some inexplicable set of facts, numbers, and research set aside for those who understand it. It is more like a code that can be cracked by very smart people who in turn teach the general public simpler ways to gain access. While studying the humanities and liberal arts may be overlooked in an intensive science curriculum, they are also important to study in order to understand how society and communication affect the scientific process.
Good luck in your search.
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